[Viljams]

Hello!

I love Blackberry phones. I am curently using BB 9700 and I want to upgrade to 9900. There is some sellers in ebay from China who are selling cheap "new and original" BB'ies for under 100$ - are they really original and new, not some copy-cats? Or should I buy from sellers in USA? Those from USA is much more expensive.

I would like to use BB 9900 for a year maybe and then upgrade to BB Classic or even BB Passport. :- )

[Bla1ze]

There's no real way of knowing this outside of ordering one from China and seeing what you end up with. Look for the obvious signs, bad boxes, not right looking icons, or ask the retailer for pics if they don't have any listed other than generic ones. If they're legit, they should have no issues obliging.

[anon(9721108)]

Hello!

I love Blackberry phones. I am curently using BB 9700 and I want to upgrade to 9900. There is some sellers in ebay from China who are selling cheap "new and original" BB'ies for under 100$ - are they really original and new, not some copy-cats? Or should I buy from sellers in USA? Those from USA is much more expensive.

I would like to use BB 9900 for a year maybe and then upgrade to BB Classic or even BB Passport. :- )

I have seen those as well from Chinese sellers and only a week ago when I did another search.

I always read the reviews of other buyers if I am looking at EBay or Amazon and sometimes the reviews are very mixed.....some say "the product was new as advertized" and then others claim they are "lightly used."

I wonder if Crackberry has a FOR SALE section? I don't bother with other forums too much. Might be cool if they had this in here.

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[littlebuff]

You can go shopping for parts in Shenzhen and built a new phone from them. If you can pay for the volume, you can buy the boxes and (fake) labels as well. A guy recently assembled an Iphone 6 out of parts there.
But on the other hands, Blackberry also released in Hongkong and major devices were released there in quite a number, so there is still the possibility of original devices there.
As already mentioned, ask seller for pictures of box, actual phone, including picture of the battery bay. Google for similar pictures or unboxing vids and pics and compare them.

Posted via CB10

[Doug_M]

I have a little bit of experience with "new" Chinese phones when I bought a couple of Motorola RAZR's last year. In short, no, they are not new. They may be good value, but they are not truly new. They are re-packaged as new with some refurbishing as well. So take them as being in good condition at a cheap price.

If you really want a gem, watch eBay daily and look for a North American seller. You'll snag a good one eventually and for a decent price.

[ColinsCity]

I think some of the blackberry's in china are left over stock, so it's probably that or they are refurbished of course there are fakes but fake blackberry's are incredibly distinguishable. I think another good option would be to look for a used Bold 9900 that is listed as Grade A/Grade B because they are usually in really good condition, i bought a Grade A- on ebay from Dubai last week, it is a really good phone and definitely a great upgrade from the 9700, that's actually what i upgraded from in 2011.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[kev6n]

Of course is not new but not copycat.
I'm from China. Blackberry here 90% is refurbish.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[idssteve]

Of course is not new but not copycat.
I'm from China. Blackberry here 90% is refurbish.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Fascinating info. Thank you for your perspective. A few questions I've long been curious about, if I may? Is BIS still available in China? Do you "trust" its privacy? Do you still see BlackBerry in very popular use in China? Do you suppose these refurbished handsets were retired from service from Chinese users? Or were they from out of country and imported just for refurbishment? Were the copycat products mostly intended for domestic (in Cihna) users? Or were they intended for global users?

I've long been fascinated with how much refurbish activity surrounds our 6 year old, supposedly "hopelessly obsolete" 9900s. Doubly fascinated with how ANYone found profit in implementing production runs of copycat 9900s and components. ?? It seems there was FAR more interest in these things than simple idle "nostalgia" so many here in "the west", including BlackBerry themselves, seem to want to believe. Just curious about your perspectives. Thanks.

[kev6n]

Wel, to be honest, using a black berry in China is a image shows you are unique or a geek. We don't have BIS until 2011(No longer service since 2015)And seldom people using BIS because is really expensive here. So without BIS,the blackberry have a lot issues using in China.We customize the firmware to makes blackberry stable. And even worse, the black market of blackberry is huge(Again,lackberry is expensive if you bought from official,and few product you can choose) that's why black market is so huge here. Refurbished just a tiny issues compare with the stability. Blackberry is a phone for small group of people (fans) in China.Talking about refurbished,we have huge market of refurbished gadgets.From iPhone to old Nokia, we all did it.That's a lot story about refurbished blackberry and IPhone.

[kev6n]

Fascinating info. Thank you for your perspective. A few questions I've long been curious about, if I may? Is BIS still available in China? Do you "trust" its privacy? Do you still see BlackBerry in very popular use in China? Do you suppose these refurbished handsets were retired from service from Chinese users? Or were they from out of country and imported just for refurbishment? Were the copycat products mostly intended for domestic (in Cihna) users? Or were they intended for global users?

I've long been fascinated with how much refurbish activity surrounds our 6 year old, supposedly "hopelessly obsolete" 9900s. Doubly fascinated with how ANYone found profit in implementing production runs of copycat 9900s and components. ?? It seems there was FAR more interest in these things than simple idle "nostalgia" so many here in "the west", including BlackBerry themselves, seem to want to believe. Just curious about your perspectives. Thanks.

Wel, to be honest, using a black berry in China is a image shows you are unique or a geek. We don't have BIS until 2011(No longer service since 2015)And seldom people using BIS because is really expensive here. So without BIS,the blackberry have a lot issues using in China.We customize the firmware to makes blackberry stable. And even worse, the black market of blackberry is huge(Again,lackberry is expensive if you bought from official,and few product you can choose) that's why black market is so huge here. Refurbished just a tiny issues compare with the stability. Blackberry is a phone for small group of people (fans) in China.Talking about refurbished,we have huge market of refurbished gadgets.From iPhone to old Nokia, we all did it.That's a lot story about refurbished blackberry and IPhone.

[EFats]

So are most other older phones from there. I've had really good experience so far. All the refurbished phones got from China are EXCELLENT! Like new. I just have to put up with the long shipping times.

[littlebuff]

It's not always refurbished. When giants like T-mobile, AT&T, and other carriers dump the old models, they sell them per tons, not per devices. Phones which are worthless for use would end up somewhere like India, Bangladesh or elsewhere where they can extract the bit of gold inside as with other electronics. Most or a large part of the usable Blackberry ends up in Shenzen. But yes, there is a refurbishing industry in China.


Posted via CB10

[JoeBiGGsMen]

29C41ED8 or 2123BiGG THANK YOU

[conbrio29]

What do you guys think of this one: https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=-aaftA3B

[anon(10512033)]

If you read closely, it appears to be missing the 1900 MHz 3G band. It's hard to tell though, because the information is contradictory. But if you're in North America, not having 1900 MHz 3G could be a problem for you. I'd message them for clarity.

[Aori]

Hmm it usually not "new" but rebuilted from "new" parts soo.... Yes it work and all but it not that legit. You should get a lightly used one. The actual new one are usually collector phone, never be unbox, those thing are pretty high in price and very rare and usually have bad battery but they meant to be for collectors

Posted via CB10

[BergerKing]

Be advised, if your carrier(s) don't have BlackBerry Internet Service available, you might as well buy a dumb phone.

[Damian Montero]

Be advised, if your carrier(s) don't have BlackBerry Internet Service available, you might as well buy a dumb phone.

BergerKing... You do know blackberry's have been working JUST FINE without BIS for a while now don't you?

https://forums.crackberry.com/blackb...82/index7.html